Yesterday, a judge of the British Columbia Supreme Court dismissed Google’s motion to vary or set aside the global injunction against it that had been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada. The injunction required Google delist websites that were being used to market a product that Equustek claimed was developed through theft of its trade secrets. Justice Smith in Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, 2018 BCSC 610 held that Google was not able to show that the global delisting order made by against it violated its First Amendment rights in the U.S.

The Supreme Court of Canada released a landmark decision today ruling that Canadian common law courts have the jurisdiction to make global de-indexing orders against search engines like Google. In so, ordering, the Court in Google Inc. v. Equustek Solutions Inc., 2017 SCC 34 underlined the breadth of courts’ jurisdiction to make orders against search engines to stem illegal activities on the Internet including the sale of products manufactured using trade secrets misappropriated from innovative companies.

The decision arose from a lower court decision that ordered Google to block websites that were selling goods that violated the trade secrets of the plaintiffs.

Fordham Law School has the best annual intellectual property conferences. I had the privilege of speaking at its 25th Annual IP Conference yesterday on the Equustek v Google case. In this case the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to decide if Canadian courts have the jurisdiction to make global de-indexing orders against search engines like Google, and if so, the factors to be considered in making such orders. My slides from the talk are shown below.

What made my talk such a treat, was the presence of Mr Justice Arnold in the audience.

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